The nine children, aged between two months and eight-years, were rescued separately in a police operation that started in December last year in the northern states of Penang, Kedah and Perak, according to Penang police chief Abdul Rahim Hanafi.

The jury in the trial of nine men alleged to have run the Oxford gang were also told of second alleged victim who, it is said, was made to have an illegal abortion after being impregnated by one of the defendants just after her twelfth birthday.

Thousands of people are being trafficked to the UK and forced to work long hours in squalid conditions for next to no pay, a major report has warned.

The UK Human Trafficking Centre (UKHTC) said 1,000 victims of trafficking for forced labour had been referred to the centre since 2009, but said this represented the ‘tip of the iceberg’ for a ‘hidden crime’.

LONDON (Reuters) - Younger and younger girls are being dragged into prostitution because of the global economic crisis, a conference on women's rights was told on Wednesday.

About 21 million people - or three out of 1,000 people globally - are in forced labor, meaning they have been coerced or deceived into jobs which they cannot leave, figures released by the International Labour Organisation (ILO) this year showed.

THE NEW man in charge of policing in West Mercia has pledged to support campaigners in Worcester who have joined the fight to end human trafficking.

Police and crime commissioner Bill Longmore promised to raise the issue of trafficking with Chief Constable David Shaw and work with him to increase awareness among the police and public in Worcestershire.